Breakdown
by ballistics belle
Summary: Alexx was wrong. She wasn't headed for a breakdown. She was chest deep in one. Post ep for 'Man Down.' Major spoiler alert! HC.


**Breakdown**

**A/N:** Here's what I think happened after the credits rolled on 'Man Down.''….Or at least what I think should have happened. **Major spoiler alert. **HC.

_We're only immortal for a limited time. - Rush, Dreamline_

"Get him out of here." Calleigh snarled as the officer dragged the guard away.

She couldn't believe it. Eric almost died so that asshole could pay off his car loans. How sick was that?

Ryan paced back and forth behind her chair. He didn't know how to deal with all of this. This was the closest he had ever come to losing a partner.

Unfortunately for Calleigh, this was nothing new. She'd lost Speed. She'd lost Hagen. And God knows she'd almost lost Horatio enough times, Eric was just another tear drop to fall.

"I hope that Horatio finds that bastard and kills him before he takes out another one of us." Ryan commented as he came and sat down across from her at the table. Calleigh paled a little.

She had been so focused on finding Eric's shooter that she completely forgot that Clavo Cruz was still out there with an insatiable thirst for revenge against their red headed leader.

Jumping up from her seat, Calleigh whipped out her cell phone as she flew down the hall.

Ryan, who had been left behind, felt bad for the poor fool that got in her way.

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"Hey Handsome, just call me back when you get this, okay?" Calleigh said, stumbling over her tears as she left a voice mail on his cell.

She desperately needed to talk to him, to hear his voice. She needed some kind of reassurance that he was okay.

She had been worried about him before with that psychopath on the loose, but now that she knew what he was really capable of doing, she was damn near panicked. Add to that the fact that now he wasn't answering his phone and her panic turned into paranoia.

Barreling down the hallways of the lab, her mind completely focused on her destination, Calleigh didn't see Alexx in her path, not even as she knocked right into her.

Alexx tried to stop her to talk to her but she kept right on like one of her precious bullets, not stopping until she hit her mark.

Once she was locked away safely in her ballistics lab, she made a beeline for the gun vault where she grabbed the first gun she saw, loaded it and began to turn as many paper targets into confetti as possible.

As the smell of gun powder engulfed the room, she swore that if even one hair on Horatio's head was misplaced, Clavo Cruz would pay by the barrel of her gun.

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Alexx was the first person Horatio ran into when he returned to the lab after stopping by the hospital. And by the look on her face, things were not going well.

"That girl is headed for one hell of a breakdown." She declared.

"Which girl?"

"Calleigh. She came tearing through here about an hour ago and there has been constant gunfire coming from the range ever since then." Alexx explained.

"Thank you, Alexx." Horatio sighed before taking off in that direction. What he found was heartbreaking.

Calleigh stood in shooter's stance firing off rounds as fast as possible. As soon as one mag was empty, she field stripped it and shoved another one in before shooting again. Alexx was wrong. She wasn't headed for a breakdown, she was chest deep in one.

Horatio waited until she emptied her latest magazine before stepping up behind her and placing his hands over hers. She jumped and the empty gun clattered to the counter as she spun around and threw her arms around him.

Horatio wrapped his arms around her tightly as the flood gates opened and she began to sob uncontrollably into his chest. He rocked gently with her in his arms as she shook. When her tears finally began to die down, she muttered something into his shirt.

"What was that, sweetheart?" Horatio lifted her head up.

"I keep thinking it was you." She cried. Horatio tilted his head.

"Me?"

"Yes! Every time I close my eyes, I don't see Eric lying in a hospital bed, I see you lying on an autopsy table. In my mind, you died. Someone took you away from me." She explained as she started to cry again. Horatio gently stroked her hair.

"Shhh, it's okay, Cal. I'm right here. I'm alive and I'm not leaving." He whispered as he placed her hand over his heart. "That's where you are, Cal. That's where I keep you all the time. And I promise that you'll never be without me. Even if someday, someone does take me away from you, I'll still be with you because I know that's where you keep me too." Calleigh looked up him with her teary blue eyes and he could see the question in them. "What it is?"

"What if this is all we get, Horatio? What if we don't get the rest of our lives and here and now is all we had? Is that enough? Is a secret relationship enough to last us through eternity?" Horatio looked her right in the eye.

"No. If sun rises someday and you and I aren't around to see it, I want everyone in the world to know what we had. I want everyone to know that we had each other." Calleigh closed her eyes as Horatio placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Can we stay just like this forever?" She asked as she snuggled deeper into his arms. Horatio rested his head on top of hers.

"That's my plan."


End file.
